Black and white just doesn’t do justice to the red in Samantha Rodriguez’s ‘Ariel’ (at right) in this photo. The A.C. Jones High School and Moreno Middle School choirs invite the community to their spring concert on Tuesday, May 14, themed “An Evening of Broadway Musicals,” which will include scenes from recent Broadway hit shows such as Wicked, RENT, Les Miserables, the Little Mermaid and many more. The show starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Gertrude R. Jones Auditorium on the Coastal Bend College campus. Admission is free. Also pictured above are Mary Hilliard as Pocahontas and Jose Arredondo as Monsieur Thernadier.

Corpus christi –Last Saturday was the third annual Ink Slingers’ Ball which was held at the House of Rock in Corpus Christi.

And if you’re like me, you probably had in mind that you’d see a bunch of tattoo artists giving tats or showing off their skills.

Well then, like me, you would’ve been wrong.

The Ink Slingers’ Ball is actually an annual event where printmakers from all over (and I do mean ALL over) get together to drink and be merry.

Oh, and maybe sell some art.

The large group of eclectic artists varied in region as well as ages.

New Yorker Pat Seals, who coincidently is the bassist from the hard rock band Flyleaf, accompanied his sister, Katy Seals, to the art show to sling some of their prints.

Nick Francel from Austin was having a few beers as the crowds admired his mutated Saturday Morning cartoon creations.

But after chatting with many of the artists for a while, they would always ask, “Have you talked to Marc? He’s from France.”

Marc Brunier-Mestas, as it turns out, is the premier underground printmaker in France. He’s had renowned retrospective shows all over Europe, China and here in the States.

Brunier-Mestas was brought over to America by Julia Curran, who visited France for a French-American exchange program. Curran resides in St. Louis, Mo., and the two of them came together and started a traveling art show.

All of Brunier-Mestas artwork was printed on drink coasters, which at first glance may seem like an odd canvas, but he’s an artist, so anything can be a canvas. Right?

Curran was on hand to translate for Brunier-Mestas, who said, “I decided to create the series for the first time for a big workplace in France for their the inauguration, and it’s a good idea to make these.

“And it’s popular with rock ’n’ roll.”

And what does the printmaker think of Texas?

“It is so nice,” he said with a huge grin. “I love Texas.”

His artwork was also blown up to larger-than-coaster size and pasted on the walls and ceiling of the art walk tunnel.

But the event wouldn’t even exist in Corpus Christi if it wasn’t for the professor of printmaking at Texas A&M, Ryan O’Malley, who is both an actual scholar as well as a gentleman.

“I’ve been here for about three years,” O’Malley said, “and one of the first things I realized when I got here is that the city has an amazing amount of potential.

“And being around here and meeting people, I realize that there are actually folks capitalizing on that potential.”

Paul Gonzales is the entertainment writer at the Bee-Picayune and can be reached at 358-2550, ext. 116, or at thescene@mySouTex.com.